7th Avenue

7th Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. 7th Avenue is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park.
7th Avenue originates in the West Village at Clarkson Street, where Varick Street becomes 7th Avenue. 7th Avenue is crossed by Central Park from 59th to 110th Street. Artisans' Gate is the 59th Street exit from Central Park to 7th Avenue. North of Warriors' Gate at the north end of the Park, the road runs in both directions through Harlem, where it is called Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard which has the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building (the addresses continue as if 7th Avenue were continuous through Central Park, with the first block being the 1800 block). The 7th Avenue ends at the Macombs Dam Bridge over the Harlem River, where Jerome Avenue commences in the Bronx.

Notable midtown 7th Avenue districts and buildings
Running through the Garment District (which stretches from 12th Avenue to 5th Avenue and 34th Street to 39th Street), it is referred to as Fashion Avenue due to its role as a center of the garment and fashion industry and the famed fashion designers who established New York as a world fashion capital. The first, temporary signs designating the section of 7th Avenue as "Fashion Avenue" were dual-posted in 1972, with permanent signs added over the ensuing years.
7th Avenue intersects with Broadway and 42nd Street at Times Square.
Notable buildings located on 7th Avenue include:
Carnegie Hall, 57th Street
Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, 32nd Street
Fashion Institute of Technology, 27th Street
Alwyn Court Apartments, 58th Street
AXA Center (originally The Equitable Tower), at 51st Street.
South of 14th Street it becomes a major thoroughfare in the West Village. Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center on 7th Avenue and 11th Street is a main downtown hospital.

7th Avenue Origins and extension:
7th Avenue was originally laid out in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811.
The southern terminus of 7th Avenue was Eleventh Street in Greenwich Village through the early part of the 20th Century. It was extended southward, to link up with Varick Street, in 1914, and Varick was widened at the same time. Extension of the avenue allowed better vehicular connections between midtown Manhattan and the commercial district in what is now TriBeCa. It also permitted construction of the IRT Broadway – 7th Avenue Line, which opened in 1918.
Extension of the avenue was under consideration for several years, and was approved by the New York City Board of Estimate in September 1911, when the first $3 million appropriation was made for the initial planning of the work. The extension had been urged by civic groups to meet the commercial needs of Greenwich Village. A significant number of old buildings were marked for demolition in the extension, and the demolished buildings included the Bedford Street Methodist Church, constructed in 1840.

7th Avenue Pop Cultural references
The street is frequently mentioned in movies, plays and books.
It was mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel song The Boxer, in which the protagonist mentions receiving a "come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue." The Rolling Stones also note the street in "Shattered" stating, "I can't give it away on 7th Avenue" while referencing other NYC fashion icons.Jessica Simpson is a 'Fashion Mogul' in 'New York' Magazine 2011
In the 1962 play and 1965 movie A Thousand Clowns, 7th Avenue is frequently mentioned as being in proximity.
In the 1973 Steely Dan song "The Boston Rag" the protagonist declares "There was nothing that I could do So I pointed my car down 7th Avenue".
It is also mentioned in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, when detective Sam Spade tells the gunman Wilmer that his telling him to "shove off" "would go over big back on 7th Avenue. But you're not in Romeville now. You're in my burg."
In Dave Gibbons's Watching the Watchmen (Titan 2008), the comics artist speculates that the Gunga Diner, Utopia Cinema, Promethean Cab Co. and Institute for Extraspatial Studies are situated at the intersection of 7th Avenue and West 31st Street.
It was the subject of a TV miniseries with that title, focusing on the Garment District, that ran on NBC in 1977.